The Wedding Days
Director: James Yuen
Year: 1997
Rating: 7.5
As in most UFO productions,
this film is an enjoyable contemporary mix of drama, romance and comedy.
In some ways though the film doesn’t feel as smooth, glossy or energetic
as many of the other UFO films. Though James Yuen has some wonderful writing
credits to his name (He is a Woman, She is a Man and A Moment of Romance
among many others) this was his first as director and it shows in the inconsistent
quality between different scenes.
There are many wonderful things though about this film. The acting performances
are excellent all around – not only from the leads – but also from many of
the supporting actors. Lets leave Michael Wong out of that statement – not
that he is terrible – but he just acts like Michael Wong always does. His
dialogue is delivered in a mix of Cantonese and English, which must be very
confusing to those around him. No one addresses this oddity until late in
the film when Jordan Chan in frustration yells out that he can’t understand
a word Wong is saying!
This film is very female oriented with the men sitting on the sidelines for
much of the story. The point of view also seems very much slanted towards
a woman’s perspective. Now since a male – James Yuen - wrote this, I am not
sure how legitimate a viewpoint this is. The film tells the story of two
women who are very much at a point in their lives when they want to get married.
The men they are in relationships with are not nearly as keen.
The film begins with a wedding taking place upon a bus in HK and two old
friends – Anita Yuen and Charlie Yeung - meet for the first time in years.
Charlie owns a wedding store and is in the middle of an unhappy relationship
with a married man. Though we hear the man a few times on the phone making
excuses why he can’t break it off with his wife, he never is seen -
again re-emphasizing how much of a woman’s film this is. Anita is involved
with Michael who is divorced and she wants to get married in the worst way.
Jordan Chan is the wedding photographer in Charlie’s shop and provides most
of the comic relief. It is quite obvious to everyone but Charlie that he
is enamored with her – but she only sees him as a friend.
Finally Michael agrees to a simple wedding (after Anita lies to him that
her mother has cancer and wants to see her daughter get married!) – but Anita
slowly starts pushing the boundaries of a simple wedding to include a church
wedding and hundreds of guests. Charlie has to come to grips with whether
she really loves the married man or whether it is simple inertia that keeps
her going with him.
There are some excellent small roles performed by Eric Tsang as a tailor
and Christine Ng as the married man’s wife (click here to see pictures of her wedding that just took
place).
There are also some very nice scenes throughout – and one magical one of
Charlie running through the streets of HK in one of her wedding dresses and
Jordan photographing her. I wish we had seen more of that side of Charlie
because she goes through much of the film looking very glum and miserable.
There is no new ground plowed in this film and though it doesn’t rank with
UFO’s best, it is still a fairly enjoyable romantic comedy and though the
ending isn’t quite Sense and Sensibility – it is quite crowd pleasing.
